Wednesday 26 October 2011

Jack


There has been much chatter among friends and townsfolk about the old man (We will call him Jack) who lived here before we did. When old Jack passed away, it was revealed  that he had infact been living a bit of a double life.

Old Jack had told his friends and neighbours that his wife, the love of his life had died years earlier and that his two sons had grown up and moved away and this was what had prompted his move from an affluent area of Sydney to the 100acre bush block in tiny town. "A place to get away from the rush of the city".


Jack missed his wife very much and often told people how they used to go dancing together each week, he told them about his boys and their antics as they had grown and of the things he planned to do for them with all his money.

One day Jack fell ill, and his best mate Tom drove him to the hospital, it was cancer and Jack sadly passed away a few days later. After his death, Jacks sister arrived and met Tom and they cried on each others shoulders for their loss.
Tom asked Jacks sister if she had contacted his boys yet as they needed to know and he didnt have their phone numbers.

That was when everything came undone. After some shock from both parties, it was revealed that Jack did not have any children, infact he had never been married at all. He was simply a pensioner and a loner with some odd habits who had escaped his demons and the city.

For 10 years, Jack had lied to his best mate and all of tiny town about his entire life.


Of course in a small rural community such revelations inspire much gossip and the big question of WHY? has been filled with speculations regarding his mental health, his sexuality, and of course the fabled existence or whereabouts of Jacks supposed buried millions.

As I pluck the infinate weeds from my gardens and the surrounding bushland, one of them is let to grow and bloom then another...

Opium Poppies.

Sprouting from every available gap in the ground, hundreds of them.
Perhaps his double life was in the drug trade and we will oneday recover 'Jacks Millions'? 
All those mysterious trips back to Sydney to see the sons he never had...


Or perhaps, it was all just a load of poppy cock.

3 comments:

ClaireyHewitt said...

I love this story. I hope you uncover a secret diary hidden somewhere one day that has all the answers.

I may have been reading too many novels lately!!

alliecat said...

Fascinating. A lonely old man who was maybe living out a fantasy life he wished he had but never found. I feel sad for him, actually, I hope he found happiness in the here after.

Suzi - Under The Windmills said...

Clairey, yes I was wondering about a diary too - the neighbor says he used to write a lot, "pages and pages of teeny tiny writing". But I think that his family have probably got all of that...

Allie, I agree thats the most plausable explaination. It's a sad story I hope he's happy now too.